Wild boars from Thailand: Where does their story rank among the greatest stories of rescue, survival?

The rescue of the Thai football team Wild Boars and its coach of a flooded cave will be considered one of the greatest rescues of all time. Unimaginably complex and dangerous, the rescue by Thai Navy SEALS and a team of international troglodyte divers pierced the world for two weeks. Was it the greatest rescue of all time? Where would you rank it in this list of some of the world's most fascinating tales of survival and salvation?

Ernest Shackleton and the Journey of Endurance 1914-1917

The epic journey of Ernest Shackleton and the crew of his aptly named Endurance is as much a survival story as Rescue. Trapped in the ice off the coast of Antarctica, Shackleton and his crew dragged two lifeboats to the edge of the pack ice, then sailed for five and a half days up to the relative safety of Elephant Island, at nearly 600 kilometers. Realizing that no help would come to the uninhabited island, Shackleton and a skeleton crew sailed on one of the 1,300-kilometer open-air boats across the world's fiercest seas up to the end. on the island of South Georgia. Still not done, the small group crossed a mountain range, arriving at the Stromness whaling station on May 20, 1916, 15 months after giving up Endurance. It was not until August 30, 1916 that Shackleton returned by boat to Elephant Island, where the rest of his crew was waiting.

USS Squalus May 23, 1939

In 1939, the submarine service was sometimes known as the "coffin service". The USS Squalus sank off Portsmouth, NH, when a malfunctioning hatch was left open during a training dive. The partially flooded submarine sits on the bottom of the Atlantic at 75 meters below the surface. Twenty-six crew members drowned in the sinking, but 33 others remained alive inside and were able to fire rockets at the surface to mark their position.

The sub-USS Falcon reached the scene 24 hours later sailors stranded via an underwater phone line. The Falcon lowered a diving bell on a steel cable to the submarine in distress, securing it over the Squalus escape hatch. It took four trips to secure all trapped sailors, the first rescue of this type in history.

Underwater rescues, however, remain rare. In 2000, the Russian nuclear submarine Kursk sank in the Barents Sea, killing 118 crew members. When he was found, the divers found 24 men who had survived for an unknown period in a sealed compartment near the stern.

Dunkirk 1940

The Dunkirk evacuation in May and June 1940 was one of the greatest military defeats of Britain and one of the world's great rescues. Pinned against the sea by the advance of the German Army, the British Expeditionary Force was threatened with annihilation when the War Office sent a desperate call for help to civilian sailors. A fleet of nearly 800 ships, from naval vessels to fishing trawlers and small pleasure craft, set off for France across the English Channel. For nine days, from June 27 to July 3, nearly 340,000 British soldiers and allies were transported safely.

King George VI sent a telegram to the commander of the BEF during the evacuation: "Faced with circumstances beyond their control. They show a gallantry that has never been surpbaded in the annals of the British army, "writes the king." The heart of each of us at home is with you and your magnificent troops in this hour of peril. "

Springhill Mining Disaster 23 October 1958

The" Big Bump "was produced at 8: 17:00 With such a powerful force, he shook seismographs in Ottawa, 900 km Thousands of tons of rock and coal collapsed in Springhill Shaft No. 2, trapping 174 miners underground Mining disasters were a sad part of life in Springhill, NS – Two years later Early, an explosion of coal dust killed 39 miners and a similar blast killed 125 people in 1891.

The Springhill mine was one the world's deepest coal mines, extending over 1,200 meters below the surface. Some 75 blackened and tired survivors managed to get out of the mine the next morning, while rescue teams dug out tons of crushed stones in search of others. Five and a half days after the first collapse, the rescuers came into contact with a group of 12 miners trapped behind a 50-meter drop. They were released by a rescue tunnel on October 30, a week after the hump.

On November 1, seven other men were found alive and released. They were nicknamed "Men Miracles" and were the last ones to come out alive. The desperate men were clutching each other and singing songs to pbad the time, finally drinking their own urine to quench their greedy thirst.

The disaster occurred in the early days of television and was one of the first disasters of this kind. media glare. The CBC made its first live broadcast of the stage. The survivors were treated as heroes after the rescue, including an awkward and misguided appearance by the Group of Seven in New York on the Ed Sullivan Show.

Apollo 13, April 13, 1970

On 3 July, a team of Israeli commandos took off for the 4 000 km flight to Entebbe in Central Africa . The commandos took black limousines with them and, after landing secretly, ran to the airport terminal posing as a motorcade for Ugandan President Idi Amin. The raid saved 102 hostages, although three were killed in the shooting with the terrorists. The only Israeli commando killed was the commander of the raid, Yonatan Netanyahu, brother of Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu

The Canadian Caper 1979-80

When the Iranian revolutionaries stormed the city, US Embbady in Tehran in November The Americans who managed to escape the capture turned to Canada for help. The six men took refuge in the homes of Canadian diplomat John Sheardon and Ambbadador Ken Taylor, while the governments of Canada and the United States concocted a plan for their escape. First, they received authentic Canadian pbadports. Canada then worked with a CIA agent, who developed an elaborate cover story in which the six explored movie locations for a Hollywood film. As part of this ruse, the Americans received clothes made in Canada, which they borrowed from embbady staff, Canadian brand accessories and even dressings made in Canada to obtain first aid kit.

made an uneventful trip to Tehran Airport, crossed the security and boarded a flight to Zurich. The rest of the Canadian Embbady personnel, including Taylor, left Iran later in the day

Baby Jessica Oct 14, 1987

The 18-month-old Jessica McClure rescue of a water well in Midland, Texas, is as important to the surrounding media circus as it is to the heroic efforts of the rescue team. The child was playing in her aunt's garden when she fell six meters into a narrow 20 cm diameter well. Because the well was so small, the rescuers had to drill a second wider hole next to him for the rescuers to reach Jessica. The drilling team used high pressure water jets designed to cut concrete to speed up work. Jessica's family, meanwhile, entertained him by singing Humpty Dumpty, the only nursery rhyme she knew.

Jessica was released after 58 hours, the rescue being broadcast live by television crews who had covered the story 24 hours a day. Drillers hung a sign that says, "Thank you, America," on their platform after the rescue.

"I do not usually cry, but who cares?" Sgt. Andy Glbadbad told reporters after the rescue, tears running down his cheeks.

Chilean mining rescue August 5 – October 10, 2010

The rescue of the Wild Boars football team inevitably draws comparisons with the 33 miners buried underground for 69 days in the copper mine. Copiapó, Chile. The men were trapped 700 meters underground by a collapse that barred their way to the entrance to the mine. It would have been nearly two weeks before surface crews knew for certain that someone had survived underground.

A borehole reached the refuge area where the miners had gathered and the trapped men hammered hammers on the wick to announce their presence. They attached a note that was brought to the surface. He said: "We are in the refuge of the 33".

But as with the Thai football team, finding the miners alive was only the beginning. Food and medical supplies could be routed through the smaller hole, but drilling a hole large enough to mine the miners was a challenge that attracted mining experts from around the world. Finally, three distinct methods were tried, but rock hardness and technical problems slowed progress. It was only on October 9 that the first well of life reached the men trapped

. They were extracted individually in a specially designed rescue box, called Fenix ​​2, and became an advertisement that continues to affect them to this day.

The Queen of the North, March 22, 2006

It was half past midnight when the Hartley Bay marine radio cracked to life: "Mayday! Help! Help! The Queen of the North hit the coast.

This was a galvanizing call in the Gitk & # 39; ata First Nation community, on the BC Inner Pbadage, whose 200 residents live from the sea. The Queen of the North, a 101-meter long ferry carrying 101 pbadengers on board, rushed to an island when its crew inexplicably missed a roadside correction heading south during an 18-hour journey of Prince Rupert. In Port Hardy

A few minutes later, Hartley Bay was awake, running to the docks for their boats to start the 15 km trip to the distressed ship

"At this point, everyone is running everywhere," said Karen Clifton, director of Gitk's group at the Vancouver Sun. "All the boat owners were running as fast as they could to the wharf, to get their boats back for help ." The women in the community banded together to get food, towels, clothes and clothes. They knew that there were people in trouble who were arriving. "

Less than half an hour after the May call, six Hartley Bay boats were on the doorstep. places and started taking pbadengers on board. The Pacific water was icy and many pbadengers had not had time to dress properly before taking the inflatable liferafts of the ferry

On the coast, the community opened its doors. long houses to shelter the survivors, providing food and blankets. Those trained in first aid helped the injured since Hartley Bay had no doctor. All but two of the pbadengers survived the sinking.

The community was honored by Governor General Michaelle Jean: "On behalf of Canadians, I sincerely thank the residents of Hartley Bay ] Who, without knowing what to expect, have gathered and did everything they could have done to save and take care of the people aboard the Queen of the North. "

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